Officials in China are extremely threatened by the involvement of Christians in recent mass protests in Hong Kong, with many churches on the mainland pinned for supposed extremism in recent months for their association with Christians in the Special Administrative Region.
Nine Iranian Christians who had converted from Islam were sentenced to a total of 45 years in prison for “acting against national security” and “promoting Zionism,” as Iran’s Revolutionary court denied the requests of those who asked for lawyers and transferred them to the country’s worst prison.
A once-loving Chinese pastor and family man imprisoned 6 years ago by the Chinese Communist Party was found under severe psychological duress by his family members on their last visit to him December 13, and his daughter is seeking to expose the brutal methods by which the regime quells dissidence.
The Chinese government crackdown on unofficial Christianity continued late summer into early fall, with house churches in Yunnan province and Shandong province shut down in August and October.
Officials in Jiangxi Province, China replaced a church’s sign with a communist party slogan and swapped out biblical paintings for a portrait of President Xi Jinping.
A house church pastor in eastern India was accosted in his home by Hindu extremists while praying, leading to severe injuries for his whole family and accusations of witchcraft.
India’s Jammu and Kashmir state is now shrouded in a 105 day-long internet and communications blackout that has prevented Christians from assembling together without extreme harassment.
North Korean propaganda footage released by Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) tells the story of a Christian woman who fled the regime and returned to establish an underground church.
House churches across China continue to be harassed by the government during their activities. On August 11, a house church in Yunnan province was raided by the authorities during service. Churchgoers’ cell phones were confiscated and names of members recorded, before they were asked to sign a statement promising that they would never come to this church again.
The oxygen is thinning for religious freedom in India following the reelection of the Bharatiya Janata Party in May, with six attacks on Christians recorded in Telangana State alone in July.
Single mothers in Iran are embracing Christianity as a way out of sex slavery.
China has introduced a new textbook with Western classics such as Robinson Crusoe, Vanka, and The Little Match Girl, but with every reference to God removed.
Chinese pastor Wang Yi, who was arrested in December on charges of ‘inciting subversion of state power,’ has now been charged again by the Chinese government with ‘illegal business activities.’
Seven of the Christians arrested by Iranian intelligence services on July 1st in the city of Bushehr are being held in solitary confinement with no access to lawyers, Middle East Concern reports.
A handful of new house churches have become casualties of the Chinese government’s ‘sinicization’ campaign since April, as the communist regime seeks to stamp out all remnants of unofficial Christianity.
Eight Iranian Christians were arrested by Iranian intelligence officials at the beginning of July, and are currently being held at an undisclosed Intelligence Ministry site in Bushehr, a southern port city on the Persian Gulf.
A house church in India was violently attacked Sunday, June 30th during a worship service, marking the third Sunday in a row the church was harassed by Hindu radicals.
The thinning oxygen in the atmosphere for Iran’s religious minorities came to light Friday with the State Department’s release of its 2018 Report on International Religious Freedom, which detailed the level of suppression suffered by Christians and Baha’i under the Ayatollahs.
Wycliffe Associates, an international organization involving people in the advancement of Bible translation, is ready to begin Scripture translation for 10 languages in an undisclosed nation where the government fiercely opposes Christianity and evangelism is illegal.
Two Christians in the northern Iranian city of Rasht had their sentences upheld after losing their cases in an Iranian court of appeals.